Fail to prepare, prepare to fail – Roy Keane is still taking the famous catchphrase literally.

Keane was the first man onto the Gannon Park training ground Tuesday morning with early bird Seamus McDonagh, a good hour and a half before Martin O’Neill conducted his first session as Ireland boss.

Just as Tiger Woods likes to get his Major practice rounds out of the way early, away from as many prying eyes as possible, Keane was getting down to business with as little fuss as possible.

So he was out of the gym, across the car park and onto the pitch with the minimum of fuss, stopped for a moment by a young family and captured for posterity by a couple of early bird photographers.

Over an hour later, a beaming Robbie Keane led a player troupe from the gym to the pitch.

“Jaysus lads, I’ve never seen you here so early,” said the veteran, addressing a crowd of reporters.

“There must be a new manager or something.”

A woman wheeled her grandson’s Bugaboo in front of the cameras.

“Take a picture of the baby in front of the paparazzi,” she ordered her daughter.

If there were elements of a circus on the outside, the first sighting of Keane inside were anything but.

Wearing blue shorts, a green top and football boots, the trim and fit 42-year-old initially stood alone, a ball under his foot.

He watched the players intently as they began their warm-up 20 feet away.

In the far corner, the goalkeepers worked with their new coach, the former international McDonagh.

Keane shared a joke first with one kitman, Mick Lawlor, then another, Dick Redmond.

He was soon deep in conversation with O’Neill, then moments later fully engaged with the players.

A ‘Hi Roy’ shout from a brave photographer in search of the perfect shot was ignored.

According to some of the players afterwards, Keane took the lead in terms of directing the drills, firing out a couple of red bibs to John O’Shea to redistribute.

“I told them to say that,” joked O’Neill, adding that on Monday night Keane decided to join McDonagh on the pitch in preparation for the session.

O’Shea, in fact, asked his former Sunderland manager to join in with the training. “Ah no,” replied Keane.

Reporters were only granted access for 15 minutes at the start of the session, for which the FAI doubled their security detail from four to eight. But supporters were allowed to keep watching from the far touchline.

In a nearby cafe, a worker was unimpressed by the scene.

“If one of our staff had a hissy fit, they’d be out the door and wouldn’t be back,” she said, a reference to the still unavoidable Saipan.

It’s something Keane will no doubt rediscover when he faces the media today.

O’Neill is completely unconcerned about that and was quietly content with their first morning’s work together.

“It was exactly what we said we’d do,” he said. “Roy wants to work with players and so do I.

“We have a formula to work with but it’s not rocket science.”

The duo only have two more days to work with the players before Friday’s friendly with Latvia.

O’Neill’s over-riding concern is for what happens in 10 months’ time, when the next European Championship qualification campaign gets underway.

But O’Neill feels yesterday’s work was a good start after himself and Keane held an introductory meeting with the players on Monday evening.

“The players were fine with Roy,” said the Derry man.

“You’ve got him tomorrow and we’ll see how you feel, it might be a different matter!”

O’Neill kept his words short to the players on Monday. He joked that at 7.30pm he told them curfew was 7.45.

Interestingly, they all stayed in the hotel and the new manager sat among them for an informal chat.

“The players will have to get used to my humour,” O’Neill smiled. “My wife is sick of it!

“The players were in good spirits. I wish good spirits was enough to win you football matches.

“But Roy is focused and wants to do it. And you will find tomorrow that he is especially ready for it.

“He’s very bubbly. Around the table he was very self-effacing – but you’ll probably get a different Roy.

“The players, of course, have great respect for him as a player.”

For some, yesterday’s session would have been a surreal experience. Alex Pearse, for example, had posters of Keane on his wall as a kid.

What’s certain is that the new management team are a million miles from the previous regime.

Take this from O’Neill on allowing Andy Reid to play his guitar, the instrument that was the cause of his banishment under Giovanni Trapattoni.

“If he plays it well I haven’t a problem with it,” deadpanned O’Neill.

“At some stage Andy will have to go to bed and if still playing at 5.30, even I, if we won, might get fed up with that.”